DL Open Thread: January 1, 2023

Let’s see–went to bed at halftime of the Ohio State-Georgia game.  So, I’m only a little hung over, and I’ve had my first dose of morning caffeine.  I’ll try to rustle you up some interesting stuff to start the year.

Oopsies–CNN Misses NYE Countdown While Host Don Lemon Shakes His Butt To “Back That Azz Up”.   I can’t make this stuff up. They were in N’Awlins.  Hmmm, wonder if Lemon honored the CNN ‘No Drinking’ edict…

How Elise Stefanik Turned Herself Into A MAGAt.  I’d call this a character profile if Stefanik had any true character:

For years, Ms. Stefanik had crafted her brand as a model moderate millennial — “the future of hopeful, aspirational politics in America,” as her mentor, Paul Ryan, would describe her in Time magazine. But as her third term unfolded, according to current or former friends and advisers, it was becoming painfully clear that she was the future of a Republican Party that no longer existed. The party was now firmly controlled by Donald J. Trump, a populist president she didn’t like or respect — a “whack job,” as she once described him in a message obtained by The New York Times. Fox hosts attacked her for not supporting Mr. Trump enough. Her friends criticized her for not opposing him more forcefully. You don’t understand, she would tell them. You don’t get how hard this is. Democrats were back in charge in the House. Mr. Ryan was gone, driven into early retirement. She told friends she was thinking of joining him.

Instead she embarked on one of the most brazen political transformations of the Trump era. With breathtaking speed and alacrity, Ms. Stefanik remade herself into a fervent Trump apologist, adopted his over-torqued style on Twitter and embraced the conspiracy theories that animate his base, amplifying debunked allegations of dead voters casting ballots in Atlanta and unspecified “irregularities” involving voting-machine software in 2020 swing states. The future of hopeful, aspirational politics in America now assails Democrats as “the party of Socialists, illegals, criminals, Communist Truth Ministers & media stenographers.” In the process, she has rocketed from the backbench to the party’s No. 3 House leadership job, presiding over the conference’s overall messaging.

January 1-The Ultimate ‘Skip’ Day.  Because it always sucks:

The holiday is billed as a juncture of hope and renewal, fresh starts and clean slates. But for many of us New Year’s Day is more often marked by hangovers and to-do lists. Late starts, soiled slates. Sparkly outfits rumpled on the floor. Regrets about not having had a good enough time. Remorse about having had too good of a time.

 Optimism From Robert Reich.  A good way to start the New Year:

From Martin Luther King Jr to Ruth Bader Ginsburg to, more recently, Stacey Abrams, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Chris Smalls (who led the victory of Amazon’s Staten Island warehouse workers), Jaz Brisack (who led Starbucks workers) and Maxwell Alejandro Frost (the first member of Gen Z elected to Congress), and many others – individuals have repeatedly changed the course of history by refusing to believe that they could not stand up to repression, bigotry and injustice.

You don’t have to be famous to be an agent of positive change. You don’t have to hold formal office to be a leader.

Change happens when selfless individuals, some of whose names we will never know, give their energies and risk their livelihoods (and sometimes their lives) to make the world more humane.

Small actions and victories lead to bigger ones, and the improbable becomes possible.

Delaware’s Minimum Wage Increases Today.  To $11.75 an hour.  Part of something like a 5-year phase-in to $15 an hour.  You know, because that’s the way Carney and the Chamber wanted it instead of all at once.  BTW, didja know that agricultural workers are not eligible for the increases?  Maybe Russ Huxtable can try to correct that injustice:

A number of employees are exempt from the minimum wage increases.

These include jobs in agriculture, private homes, the U.S. federal government, and the fishing industry, as well as positions like junior camp counselors and inmates participating in Department of Correction programs.

What do you want to talk about?